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Viking River Cruises to build 12 more ships

AVIGNON, France -- The rapid expansion of Viking River Cruises will continue into 2015 with the addition of a dozen new ships, the line's top executive announced late Tuesday. Speaking at a christening event

Viking River Cruises to build 12 more ships

Do a river cruise in France on the Viking Forseti and sip French wine as you pass scenery including vineyards and historic chateaux.(Photo: Viking River Cruises)

AVIGNON, France — The rapid expansion of Viking River Cruises will continue in 2015 with the addition of a dozen new ships, the line's top executive revealed late Tuesday.

Speaking at a christening event for new vessels on France's Rhone River, Viking chairman and CEO Torstein Hagen said the fast-growing company in 2015 would add 10 of the groundbreaking "longships" it began rolling out in 2012 on European waterways. There also will be two other new vessels of a different design destined for the Elbe River, he said.

"For this year virtually all of our capacity for Viking ... is sold out," Hagen noted, suggesting the company was barely keeping up with demand. "The only place where we have any space, and I probably shouldn't mention it, but I will, is in the Ukraine."

Viking has been riding a wave of interest in river cruising over the past few years with an unprecedented rollout of new vessels.

After adding six ships in 2012 and 10 more in 2013, the company this week made cruising history with the naming of 16 new vessels in a 24-hour period.

Three of the ships — the Viking Heimdal, Viking Hermod and Viking Buri — were christened Tuesday at a waterfront ceremony in Avignon, France, while four more were christened simultaneously at the Neptun shipyard in Rostock, Germany where most of the vessels were built.

Another nine of the ships were christened on Monday in Amsterdam, and the line plans to christen two more vessels on Friday in Porto, Portugal.

With the exception of the two ships making their debuts in Portugal, all of the newly christened vessels are of the new longship design.

With a capacity for 190 passengers, the longships boast a new-for-the-industry configuration that includes the largest suites ever for a river ship in Europe as well as cabins with balconies, a feature made possible by an innovative new cabin area layout that includes offset main corridors. Other innovations include a squared-off bow area that allows for eight more cabins than similar ships operated by competitors, and quieter engines that allow for more cabins at the rear.

Hagen on Tuesday said that by allowing for more and more-varied cabins, the new longship design is giving Viking a competitive advantage over other river lines operating in Europe, which in turn is driving demand.

"What (the new design) allows us to do is to sell a product that is (priced) somewhat less than 20% below our competitors, and it's not because we save on service or food," Hagen said. "It is really because we have made very, very efficient use of space."

With this week's additions, Viking will have 52 vessels in operation, up from 35 in 2013, cementing its lead as Europe's biggest river cruise operator catering to North Americans. Hagen said the rapid expansion had pushed the company's market share to 48%, up from 20% just five years ago.

"It's a bit unreal," Hagen acknowledged at Tuesday's event, which was attended by top travel agents that sell the line as well as the company's bankers and shipbuilders. "This company was started 17 years ago ... with two guys and two mobile phones and no money, and here we are today."

The 16 longships unveiled this week will sail this year on the Rhine, Main, Danube and Rhone rivers. Viking also has moved a one-year-old longship to Bordeaux, France to offer its first cruises on the Dordogne, Garonne and Gironde rivers.

For a deck-by-deck look at one of Viking's new longships, click through the carousel below.